Filed under: Exquisite Reviews | Tags: Ben Caldwell, Beth, DC Vertigo, Jeremy Lawson, Mark Morales, Mark Russell, Prez, Travis Lanham
Written by Mark Russell
Pencils and cover by Ben Caldwell
Inks by Mark Morales
Colours by Jeremy Lawson
Letters by Travis Lanham
Published by DC Vertigo
£2.20
Beth has won the election. Beth gets to hire a cabinet now. Beth is not going to play by the rules.
There’s a contained, maniacal glee to this series that’s only building as it goes on. Russell’s script has the same lightness of touch and tone that Ellis’ best Transmetropolitan has and both books balance the normalities of life with the horrors of a signal drenched future very well. Lanham is the unsung hero of the hour here as every surface is used to transmit (or straight up throw) data at the hapless citizens of the US. Lanham makes each one unique and lived in and real and helps the books immensely in doing so.
Caldwell’s clean, expressive lines help too and it’s interesting to see how he and Russell have dialled things back a touch here. Instead of the fantastic and bleak political humour of the horse trading last issue we get three strands; Beth’s inauguration, the reactions to it and the increasingly horrifying day Manny, a Smiley Enterprises worker, is having. Together the three show us just what an impossible, and necessary, job Beth has. She has to fix a country obsessed with how it looks rather than it is, survive long enough to avoid multiple crosshairs and somehow help people like Manny. There’s constant humour here and Russell nails it but there’s also constant tension. This is a bad situation for Beth and it’s going to get much worse, as the end of the issue shows. She’s definitely not getting the 100 day honeymoon most Presidents get but she is, at least, getting sworn in.
Rounded out by Morales’ precision ink work and Lawson’s exuberant colours this is a great, focussed, funny and dark book. Pick it up, and the first two issues and discover just why Beth is the first chief in a while it’s actually worth saying hail to.
Filed under: Exquisite Reviews | Tags: Ben Caldwell, Corn Dog Girl, DC Vertigo, Jeremy Lawson, Mark Morales, Mark Russell, Prez, Sean Parsons, Travis Lanham
Written by Mark Russell
Pencils and cover by Ben Caldwell
Inks by Mark Morales with Sean Parsons
Colours by Jeremy Lawson
Letters by Travis Lanham
Published by DC
£2.20
The election is going badly. For everyone. The horsetrading has begun as senators are courted to try and get their vote to swing. Except, they’re all courted. And they all want to swing their vote so…yeah. Beth, on the other hand, is in school, working hard and trying to work off the image of her as Corn Dog Girl. But events are about to overtake her, and her father, forever.
There are two scenes in here that are among the best you’ll read in comics this year. The first is moment with Carl the End-Of-Life Bear, Beth and her dad. It’s a perfect mix of the creative team as the sharp inks of Morales and Parsons mix with the friendly design of Caldwell’s art and Lawson’s colours to create the cuddliest euthanasiabot you’ll ever meet. Better still though is the fact that Russell’s script subverts your expectations not once but twice in the scene. It’s a beautiful piece of comics that swings through multiple emotions with ease.
The other is a moment of inspired visual wit as the senators all talk about what they’re being offered. Lying on beds and chatting on the phone like stereotypical teenagers they’re equal parts hilarious, pitiable and nightmarish. The system that Beth is meant to revolutionize writ large and giggling a lot.
There’s a lot of very clever, very funny comic work in this issue. It builds on the first, expands the world and throws visual wit at you with the same speed it throws out one liners. I’m delighted to see the book has been locked for two six issue mini-series and I look forward to the rest of. Prez has, two issues in, officially got my vote.
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